After an extra long marathon training cycle that began last September and stretched out until my recent half marathon a couple of weeks ago (25 weeks!), I am happy to be in a much lower mileage season now. My usual full marathon training blocks used to get to 100+ miles per week. This last one got me to around 80, but that majority of the second half of the cycle was around 70, so it was a steamy season!
I began this next block just this past Monday, 3/11/24, and am feeling refreshed with 45 miles this first week—I know it’s still considered high for most runners. My focus these next 12 weeks is to try and build some more speed, kinda like a 5k training plan in a way. I’m also emphasizing even heavier weights in the gym to build up as much strength as possible before I train for my fall marathon (I want that next cycle to be intense!).
I get asked at least a dozen times per week on Instagram to share more details about what I currently do at the gym and how I plan out my runs. I wanted to lay it all out on a blog post, mostly since no one reads long-form posts on Instagram anymore. Here’s what I did this week (and what’s on deck for the weekend):
phew! Sounds like so much, but most of these sessions are pretty short compared to what I just came off of in my last training block. Those gym workouts up there actually take me around 30-35 minutes, and all of the runs are pretty much under an hour. It may look like a load of speed work, but it actually comes out to about 7 miles of speed by the end of the week, which is 15% of my total mileage—well under the 20% recommendation. I go hard on these speed days and I lift really heavy during my gym workouts (except for Friday’s low impact leg day). Sundays are a full rest day.
As the weeks progress, I’ll be adding between 2-3 miles each week and increasing the weight at the gym. I’ll keep these same workouts on the schedule for 3-4 weeks and then switch up the exercises. My plan is to get to 16 mile long runs on Saturdays by the end of the 12 weeks and increase the tempo and speed interval miles as I go. Again—the goal is to focus on speed! I might look for a 5k around July to test out my progress..I’ll keep you all posted!